Police have recovered the body of a 48-year-old vegetable seller, Padma Rani Majhi, with a deep wound to her throat, from a bush beside a road in Nawabganj, on the outskirts of Dhaka. The body was found on Sunday morning after local residents noticed a strong smell while working in nearby fields.
The discovery was made beside the Shantinagar-Golla road in the Char Khulshi Chak area of Jaitrail Union. Residents who searched the area after detecting the smell found the woman’s body hidden among the bushes. News of the discovery quickly spread, drawing local people to the scene. She was identified as Padma Rani, and members of her family were informed before police arrived to recover the body.
Padma Rani was the wife of Dayal Majhi, a resident of the area. She earned a living by travelling from village to village selling vegetables, helping support a household already facing financial hardship. She had a son and a daughter.
According to family members and local residents, Padma Rani left home at around 8.30am on Saturday to sell vegetables. She did not return. Her relatives searched for her in several places throughout the day but were unable to find her or establish where she had gone.
Several traders at Golla Bou Bazar said they had seen her at the market on Saturday morning selling vegetables. They reported that she later bought bread for her son’s breakfast and left for home at around 11.15am. What happened after she departed the market remains unclear.
Her family said she worked to help manage the household expenses because her husband, a poor farmer, struggled to provide for the family. Her death has left her relatives seeking answers about how and why she was killed.
Her daughter, Iti Majhi, expressed grief and confusion over the killing. She described her mother as a simple and peaceful person and said the family was unaware of any enmity with others.
“She may have had only Tk 700 to Tk 800 with her from selling vegetables,” Iti said. “We cannot understand why our mother was killed so brutally. We want a proper investigation and exemplary punishment for those responsible.”
Nawabganj Police Station officer-in-charge Mohammad Abu Hanif said the woman had a deep injury caused by a sharp weapon on the right side of her throat. Marks believed to have been caused by a jackal were also visible on her body, he said.
The officer said the initial assessment suggested that she had been killed with a sharp weapon and her body left in the bushes. However, the exact circumstances of her death and the sequence of events leading to it will need to be established through the investigation and forensic examination.
Police prepared an inquest report at the scene and sent the body to the morgue at Sir Salimullah Medical College and Mitford Hospital in Dhaka for a post-mortem examination. The findings are expected to help determine the cause of death and provide further evidence for investigators.
Police have not disclosed a motive for the killing or identified any suspects in the information released so far. Investigators will need to establish where Padma Rani went after leaving the market, whether she met anyone on her way home and how she came to be found beside the road.
The location where the body was discovered, accounts from family members and market traders, and the post-mortem findings may all prove relevant as the investigation progresses. Police said inquiries were continuing and that the necessary legal steps were being taken.
For Padma Rani’s family, the immediate concern is to understand what happened after she left home to earn money for her household. Her daughter has called for a thorough investigation and justice for her mother, while the circumstances surrounding the killing remain under investigation.
